Written By: Cabey9
Chapters 24 - 26
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Chapter 24: Reinforcements
It was a normal day for Epsilon Starcracker. The regular flow of newbies was going smoothly. One of his friends from the Sentinel camp (Beck Strongheart) had given him donuts. Today was a good day for him.
All of a sudden, he heard a huge quaking sound coming from the entrance to the spider cave and felt the earth rattling beneath him.
Epsilon quickly flew over to the entrance. He saw Jonathan come running out.
"Pick up your feet Jonathan!" said Epsilon. "What's wrong?"
"Them," said Jonathan.
And a huge mass of arachnids and the rest of his team came out, followed by the Darkitect.
"Oh."
"Build that beacon! We need them to guide the Sentinels here!" shouted Jonathan. "My team will get the rest."
"Ok."
Avant Gardens was chaos. Newbies ran everywhere, spiders swarmed the entire planet, the team and Epsilon kept trying to build all the beacons, which the Darkitect kept trying to destroy.
"Jonathan, build the beacon. I'll stand behind and guard you," said Epsilon.
Jonathan began to build it and finished. In a few seconds, an army of Sentinel jets roared over the mountain tops.
Brick bombs and Sentinel Space Rangers, Knights, and Samurais dropped from the sky. The Samurias went up on a ledge and fired their bows, smashing tons of spiders. The Knights ran forward in a group, working together and overcoming the spiders in seconds. The Space rangers were everywhere, blasting, bombing, and smashing spiders.
The remaining spiders started to flee back into the cave. Jonathan and his team took down the spider queen, and ran after the king, who was the climbing up onto the Assembly highway.
They climbed the rock and got onto the ruined highway. Bricks built a shield for them.
The spider boss crackled with Maelstrom energy and started rapidly firing blasts at the team. The shield held.
The spider boss kept making them go backward. Blasts flew by them and hit their shield. To huge zaps flew behind them and took out part of the bridge.
Now they were corned between a smashing drop and the Universe's toughest Maelstrom creature.
"Keep fighting!" shouted Drake.
The team took a step forward, forcing the massive spider backwards. Again the went forwards, attacking then blocking, pushing the spider boss further.
The spider boss eventually was forced to the edge of the bridge. If he would move one more step backwards, he would fall down a sheer drop and be smashed.
But the spider boss didn't wanna go down without a fight. He flung a web trap at Alyss knocking her backwards. With a huge leg, he launched bricks off the highway and into the raging battle below.
"Just you and me Jonathan," said Drake. "We can do this."
The two minifig team blasted, attacked , and charged with all their might, but the spider boss was to strong.
At a distance, Jonathan saw Bricks stand up again. He saw Alyss become conscious again, and saw his friend and teammate, Drake fighting for his life beside him. He saw the Fred, the minifigure who he had thought was his friend, smashing recruits and controlling the most evil and corrupted force in the Universe.
Anger took over Jonathan. He had been betrayed, and now he was probably going to smash. The Maelstrom had hurt his friends, and he wasn't about to let it get away with smashing everyone else.
With a sudden lunge of unimaginable power Jonathan ran at the spider and knocked it to the very edge of the bridge. Old cement chunks and wires fell to the ground.
The spider king lost his footing and one back leg slipped over the edge. He gave an angry crackle and grabbed Jonathan as he began to slide further off the edge.
"NO YOU DON'T!" shouted Drake. He charged straight at the spider, sword held high. He smashed off the leg holding Jonathan and with his back rammed into the spider boss.
As he fell, the giant arachnid made the last move of his evil life, with his good remaining front leg, he ripped Drake off the edge with him.
Jonathan ran to the edge. All was in slow motion. He shouted hopelessly and miserably, "DRAKE!!!!"
Drake looked up sadly and then disappeared from view.
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Chapter 25: Aftermath
Jonathan trudged mournfully through miscellaneous scrap metal and archnid limbs on the Avant Gardens battlefield to the smothering ruins of the Sentinel camp. Everyone had their Maelstrom vacuums and were cleaning up the mess.
Jonathan limped slowly to a rock and sat down. His leg was sour. His head was sour. His right arm was sour. But above all, his heart was sour.
The awful scene kept replaying through his mind. Drake, falling.
Avant Gardens was a wreck. Spiderlings had gotten everywhere. Even the monument was almost totally destroyed. Walking from the battlefield to the launch area was a huge challenge.
Alyss walked by and said hi, but Jonathan couldn't get any words on his lips as he tried to respond.
Alyss turned around and sat down beside him. "I'm sorry about what happened," she said. "It was a terrible loss. I could tell you two were good friends."
Jonathan sighed.
"I wish there was something I could do to help," said Alyss.
"Don't worry about me," Jonathan managed to say. "Maybe one day, we can see him again. I should probably start helping you guys anyway...."
"You don't have to help us. We have hundreds of recruits helping already. I'm sure they'd understand why you're not there."
"I guess they would..." said Jonathan.
"I miss him too." said Alyss with a small sniffle. "He was funny, loyal, hard-working, strong...." She trailed off. "I had better get going now. Bye Jonathan."
Even as she left, Jonathan could tell she was crying.
Jonathan's rocket touched down on the Nexus Tower launchpad. He climbed out and went to the Sentinel floor in the tower.
Duke sat in chair silently. Neither Duke nor Jonathan greeted each other, but instead sat in silence.
After a while Duke turned his chair to face Jonathan. He sighed deeply and said, "Not all is lost."
Jonathan still did not meet his gaze.
"Avant Gardens is peaceful at last. The Darkitect's strongest servant is gone -"
"Along with one of our best fighters and my friend," Jonathan said coldly.
"I know that all too well."
"I'm going to find him", said Jonathan. "Smashed or built, I'm going to find him. He sacrificed his life for me. I am not going to let him sit at the bottom of an unknown gorge!"
"Well spoken. I'm in total agreeance with you," replied Duke.
"I don't know what's down there. I need to get my other two teammates to help me."
"I have been given an idea of what's back in that gorge. I've been thinking it over, and guessing you would want to do this, I have made my decision that I am coming with you," said Duke.
Jonathan starred at Duke, shocked. "You'll help me?"
"Drake was a friend of mine, too, you know!" said Duke. "Of course I will!"
"Get the rest of the team. When shall we go on the mission?" asked Jonathan.
"Tomorrow."
The next day, Jonathan, Bricks, Alyss, and Duke Exeter launched out of Nexus Tower to return to Avant Gardens. As they flew over it, the were able to take in the full extent of the damage.
The Monument, in ruins. The great minifigure's head disconnected on the ground. The Sentinel Camp, now not much more than a mass of still slightly smoking rubble. The spider cave, collapsed at it's center, and sizzling with Maelstrom goo.
The worst sight was the battlefield. Bricks, smashed Maelstrom and minifigure elements covered everything. Workers and recruits were scurrying around, trying to piece them back together.
What had been left of the Paradox research facility was now all gone. All that was left was the launchpad, which was cracked in half and darkened by gunshots.
They group landed slowly and hopped out of their rockets. They walked past weary workers, who hardly suppressed a small hello.
They continued walking to the edge by the Paradox camp. They slowly pushed the trees apart and went through.
Suddenly, Duke, who was leading yelled, "Stop!"
The team stopped and looked down.
They were starring into a massive gorge.
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Chapter 26: The Gorge
"We have a long hike down in head of us..." muttered Bricks.
"No kidding," said Alyss.
"I brought parachutes. We can use them," said Jonathan. "Sorry non Sentinels. They have the Sentinel logo on them."
Alyss laughed. "I don't care! I just wanna find Drake."
At the mention of Drake's name, everyone stood in silence for a while.
Jonathan unpacked the parachutes silently. He had one to each of his partners.
Finally, Duke broke the silence. "Let's go." he said. And Duke jumped into the abyss. The others followed.
They opened their brick parachutes early, since they had no idea when they might hit the bottom. The only light was coming from spots of Maelstrom goo, glowing on the sides of the gorge.
They kept falling. No one said a word. Bricks took out a flashlight and shined it below him. Still no bottom in sight.
As the kept descending, they noticed odd things on the gorge walls: A minifig skeleton, still with it's backpack and flashlight in hand, with a Stromling like weapon through him.
"Gross..." whispered Alyss.
"I don't think we're alone," said Duke, starring at the other side. A faint mechanical hiss sounded, a blast of electricity lit up the gorge for a second, and the Spiderling was gone.
"I think I see the bottom!" said Bricks. The explorers looked down. The bottom was only about 20 feet away. It was rough and jagged, with broken bricks of Minifigures and Stromlings alike.
Jonathan landed first, and Duke right behind him. The rest of the team came down a few seconds later and retracted their parachutes.
"We have to be close." said Jonathan. "This is about where", he choked, "-h-he fell."
"Stay together and search." said Duke. "I don't know what's down here and we can't get separated. Understood?"
The team murmured a yes in reply and began searching the rocks for clues.
Bricks went slightly further than the rest of the group. He looked back and saw that he was still in seeing distance. As he turned to face the other way again, his foot hit a mushy substance and he tripped. He looked up quickly to see what it was. He shined his flashlight on the object. It was a huge, purple and black, still smoking arachnid leg.
"Guys! Quick! Over here!" he yelled.
"Keep your voice down!" whispered Duke. He ran over. Jonathan dropped the Rick he was examining and rushed over with Alyss.
"Oh my bricks..." said Alyss.
But she wasn't looking at the leg. She was looking at the Spider King, hanging on a cliff just slightly above them.
"We're coming, Drake."
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Come back next time for the continuation of this epic saga on Media Of The Universe!
Read more of "Imagination's Call" HERE!
